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THE DUTY OF THE HOUR: 



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A N ORATION 



DELIVERED AT 



JAMAICi, LONG ISLAND, 



iMif 4tis im% 



BY 



.v4 



RICHARD c Mccormick 



G E E G E A . W II I T E H R N E , " S T E A J\I T HI N T E R , 

Nos. 119 Fulton & 42 Ann Stketcts. 

1863, 



MB 



O' 



Jamaica, L. I., July 6, 18C3. 

Hon. Eiciiard C. McCormick, 

Sir :— In accordance with the unanimous resolu- 
tion of your fol low-citizens, 'who had the pleasure of listening to your admirable 
oration, delivered on the 4th inst., in commemoration of our National Anniver- 
sary, I would respectfully ask for a copy of the same for publication. 

Yours with great respect, 

W. J. Cogswell, 
Chairman Com. of Arrangements. 



WooDHAVEN, T.. I., July 8, 1863. 

Hon. W. J. Cogswell, Chairman, &c., 

Sir :— Herewith please receive, for publication, a copy of 
my oration delivered on the 4th instant. If its sentiments should in any wise 
help to stimulate and intensify the patriotism of my fellow-citizens, at this crisis, 
in the histor}'' of the Republic, I shall feel that the hours appropriated to its 
preparation, from time more than usually crowded with business engagements, 
have been well spent. 

I am, with high regard, 

Your obedient servant, 

Richard C. McCormick. 



ORATION. 



Fellow Citizens : 

We meet to celebrate iLe birth of the Republic 
— to give thanks for the glorious Declaration which 
has been read in our hearing — to rejoice that the 
tedious contest which our fathers waged, for the 
principles therein set forth, was not in vain — to 
stimulate our patriotism by a recurrence to the deeds 
of those immortal men — and, briefly, to consider our 
duty to our country in this eventful hour. 

The lessons of the Revolution, ever a profitable 
stud}^ come to us to-day with augmented significance. 
The good citizen will take them to heart, and ac- 
count it more than ever a sacred obligation to pon- 
der them with serious attention. The glory of the 
day we commemorate is not diminished by the pre- 
sent aspect of public affairs. The momentous struggle 
in which the nation is engaged, for the preservation 
of the foundations laid by the fathers, and which is 
the absorbing topic of interest and discussion, is 
happily, in itself, an evidence of the high appreci- 
ation in which we hold the principles and acts of 



G 

tlio Revolution. It is, moreover, but one of the 
many trials to which the sires of "Seventy-Six" well 
knew that the Republic might be exposed. They 
were wise enough to comprehend the historic fiict, 
that good government cannot be maintained with- 
out frequent and great sacrifices. Thns George 
Washington, whose name is indissolubly associated 
with the day we perpetuate, in all his writings, 
breathed a spirit of warning against the perils which 
were likely to environ the Republic. Thus Benja- 
min Rush in his eloquent address to the people of 
the United States, in 1787, called especial attention 
to the steps b}^ which governments had been ren- 
dered stable in Europe, and referring to the history 
of Great Britain said : " Her boasted government 
has risen out of wars and rebellions that lasted 
above six hundred years." Thus Joel Barlow, in 
his oration on the Fourth of July, in the same 
year, before the Connecticut Society of the Cincin- 
nati, used this language: "Whatever praise is due 
for the task already performed, it is certain that 
much remains to be done. The Revolution is but 
half completed. Independence and government were 
the two objects contended for, and but one is yet 
obtained." And Fisher Ames writing to Timothy 
Pickering, in 1807, exclaimed: "I dread to look 
forward to the dismal scenes through which my 
children are to pass. As every nation has been 
trodden under foot, ground in a mill, and purged 



in the fire of adversity, T know not why we sliould 
hope for all fair weather and sunshine, for peace 
and gainful commerce, and an everlasting futurity 
of elysium before we have lived and suffered as 
others have done '' 

If there is one thing more frequently and im- 
pressively reiterated than another in the words of 
wisdom left to us by the patriots of the Revolu- 
tion, it is the intimation that the liberties which ihej 
had, through long suffering, w^on for their children, could 
only be preserved and enjoyed, and the government 
strengthened and perfected, hj the exercise of the 
truest and most unwearying patriotism. They ad- 
monished us "that the only liberty that is valu- 
able is a liberty connected with order; that not 
only exists along with order and virtue, but which 
cannot exist without them, '' and that such liberty 
is maintained only with the utmost exertion and 
amid great difficulties. 



" Oh Freedom! thou art not, as poets dream, 
A fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs, 
And wavy tresses gushing from the cap 
With which the Roman master crowned his slave 
When he took off the gyves. A bearded man, 
Armed to the teeth, art thou ; one mailed hand 
Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword ; thy brow 
Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarred 
With tokens of old wars ; thy massive limbs 
Are strong with struggling." 



That our great experiment of free government had 



8 

to the firing upon Sumter been attended witli such 
uninterrupted prosperit\^ : that exciting political ques- 
tions the discussion of which would have bred a 
dozen revolutions in Europe, had been so long agi- 
tated without a serious disturbance of the public 
tranquillity, was the wonder of the world. Wrapt 
in wealth and ease the fruits of an unexampled 
career of success we had as a people, well nigh 
forgotten that the price of liberty is eternal vigil- 
ance, and that a government which costs nothing is 
not likely to be worth the having. 

An eminent and philosophic statesman, "^ rebuked 
this short-coming early in the century: ''For thirty 
years," said he, ''America has been a Republic and 
during every minute of those thirty years the only 
question has been how she could make independence 
cheap, and not for one minute how liberty could be 
made durable and glorious." 

The outrage at Charleston found us unprepared 
for an immediate and irresistible punishment of the 
nest of traitors who had tliere, as we were well 
aware, been maturing their infamous designs, and 
scarcely yet do w^e realize, or are we fully aroused 
to cope wuth, the enormity and audacity of the gigan- 
tic rebellion, which stalks the land full grown and 
armed ; which threatens the very vitals of the Re- 

* FisLer Ames. 



9 

public, and wliicli lias already consumed tens of thou- 
sands of our brave brethren who have gone forth to 
confront it in battle. 

It should at this time be the object of every pub- 
lic speaker and writer to convince the people of 
the North of their situation, for it has been well 
said that the majority of a great people, on a sub- 
ject which they understand, will never act wrong. 
If there ever was a day in any age or nation when 
a clear comprehension of the state of public affairs 
and an entire and cordial unity of action were of 
vital consequence, it is the present period in the 
loyal states of this Union. The contest which has 
been forced upon us, and which we cannot escape 
if we would, is one involving our personal freedom, 
^'the sanctity of our homes, the purity of our Gospel 
and of our temples, the preservation of our substance, 
and for all that should claim the allegiance and brave 
defence of noble men." 

Those who persistently under-rate the wickedness 
of the Ttebollion, and the shame and confusion which 
must follow to us from its success, no less than those 
who pertinaciously belittle the nature and purpose 
of the war on the part of the North, are either 
traitors at heart, or fools who know not what they 
do. History furnishes no instance of a great struggle 
in which the lines were more strictly defined. On 



10 

the one side falsehood, treason and slavery, on the 
other truth, justice, law and liberty. The importance 
of such a contest cannot be over-estimated. The 
wildest enthusiast in his wildest hours has not exag- 
gerated the vastness of the consequences Avhich are 
involved. 

Those who think it for no greater purpose than 
the emancipation of four millions of black men view 
it as narrowly and erroneously as do those who wish 
that to be its single end. If as an incident in its 
triumphal progress four millions of shackles shall be- 
come useless iron, the friends of humanity througliout 
the world will have occasion for thanksgiving, and 
the institution which, beyond all others, has contribu- 
ted to the derangement of the country will have 
brought upon itself the fate due to its arrogant dis- 
regard of the spirit of the age. 

Those who, echoing the London Times, brand it a 
struggle for territory, for the wholeness of our em- 
pire are equally wroug in their conceit. If by the 
fortune of our arms the states so evidently intended, 
by their geographical relations and dependence one 
upon another, to be united under one authority shall 
be so continued it will give us increased importance 
abroad and security at home, and fulfill the high hopes 
of the fathers. 

Those who imagine it to be simply a contention 



11 

far the punishment of treason, for the authority of 
government or for the sanctity of law, all lose sight 
of its chief significance. Important and worthy to be 
asserted as are each and all of these ends, it should 
by this time be clearly and unmistakeably understood 
by all, even to the lisping school boy, that it is a 
war for our independence, " Whatever measures,'' 
said Washington, "have a tendency to dissolve the 
Union or contribute to violate or lessen the sovereign 
authority, ought to be considered as hostile to the 
liberty and independence of America, and the authors 
of them treated accordingly." Here, in a nut- shell, 
from a source which must be respected, is at once a 
definition of what we fight for and how we should es- 
timate our opponents. The war on our part is one 
in which if we do not become the victors we shall be- 
come the slaves. It is a contest for the self-evident 
truths declared in that ever memorable instrument 
which the fearless Hancock accepted and signed with 
greedy pleasure in the face of many dangers. It is 
to decide whether the Constitution framed by Jeffer- 
son, Adams and Madison, and hallowed by a thou- 
sand precious associations, the Constitution which 
Webster and Clay defended with imperishable elo- 
quence, or the paltry document lately concocted at 
Montgomery by men unworthy to unloose the latchets 
of their shoes, shall be the law of the land. It is 
to demonstrate whether Democratic Republican Gov- 
ernment has the inherent quality of self-preservation, 



12 

or whetlier it is liable to disruption at any time, and 
is a sorry failure as the despots of Europe and the 
leaders of the South proclaim. 

Dr. Smyth, a prominent scholar and clergyman of 
Charleston, whom I know to be a sincere man, de- 
clares that ''The difiQculty of the South is found in 
that atlieistical Ted-reimWican doctrine of the Declar- 
ation of Independence. Until that is trampled under 
foot there can be eo peace." The Soutliern Liter, 
ary .Messeoiger, the highest literary aulhoritj^ in the 
South, asserts that " Pure democracy is indeed a form 
of dcs})Otism, and in many cases most hideous and 
malignant, and utterly repugnant to tlie spirit of 
liberty.'' 

De B(nv\s Iievicw, the well-known commercial ma- 
gazine, deliberately avows that: "Civil liberty has 
been the theme of praise among men, and most 
wrongfully. Men accustom themselves to think that 
the more liberty accorded to the citizen in any state 
by the ruling authority, the greater the public hap- 
piness and prosperity. This is the infatuation of our 
age." 

It is more than a mistake, it is an absurdity in the 
face of these recent declarations, and others equally 
emphatic, to say that we are battling any thing less 
than ''a revolt every throb of wdiose life is a crime 
against the very race to which we belong." '•"' 

* Joseph Holt. 



13 

Such a strife sliould be prosecuted with reknitless 
vigor by a loyal and patriotic people, united as one 
man. Freemen the world over will not be satisfied 
with less. Obstacles and disappointments, however 
formidable or disheartening, must not be allowed to 
stand in the way of a duty so manifest. It would 
be remarkable if an administration charged with such 
immense responsibilities and confronted with such exi- 
gencies as liave weighed upon the [)reseni, from the 
liour of its inauguration, had committed no blunders, 
had made no false steps. Combating with unusual 
difficulties it has been compelled to resort to unusual 
measures of defence and protection. — Administering 
the government in time of war, it lias not felt bound 
to adhere to the usages of peace. The constitution 
itself warrants the distinction. What we have to do 
with is ihe motive actuating the course of the admi- 
nistration. I believe that to have been the highest 
and best, the puhlic good, and that unprejudiced his- 
tory will, regardless of the accusations of a usurp- 
ation of power and the exercise of unnecessary seve- 
rity, pronounce its greatest mistake an undue leniency 
in the treatment of those wantonly assailing its 
authority and deliberately seelving the destruction of 
the liepublic. — In the trenchant language of the Pre- 
sident to Erastus Corning: "I can no more be per- 
suaded that the government can constitutionally lake 
no strong measures in time of rebellion, because it 
can be shown that the same could not be lawfully 



14 

taken in time of peace, that I can be persuaded that 
a particular drug is not good medicine for a sick 
man, because it can be shown not to be good for a 
well one. Nor am I able to appreciate the danger 
apprehended by some that the American people will, 
by means of military arrests during the rebellion, 
lose the right of public discussion, the liberty of 
speech and the press, the law of evidence, trial by 
jury, and habeas corpus, throughout the indefinite 
peaceful future, which I trust lies before them, any 
more than I am able to belieye that a man could 
contract so strong an appetite for emetics during 
temporary illness as to persist in feeding upon them 
during the remainder of his healthful life." 

With all the wisdom, purity and prudence of 
those who conducted the Revolution, both in the 
cabinet and in the field, their acts and motives, were 
often misconstructed, not only by their hireling ene- 
mies, but also by those who were avowedly friendly to 
the continental cause. No member of the govern- 
ment and no general escaped censure John Adams, 
speaking of the violent passions and discordant in- 
terest at one time at work (especially among the 
troops) throughout the country from Florida to Cana- 
da, observes : '* It requires more severity of temper, 
a deeper understanding, and more courage than fell 
to the lot of Marlborough, to ride in this whirlwind." 
The plans of Washington were harshl}^ criticised and 



15 

denounced, the delays and tbo costs of the war were 
deplored, and the ability to succeed at all was con- 
stantly questioned by not a few of those who would 
have counted it an insult to be called tories or sym- 
pathizers with the royal power. Washington himself, 
whose mind was said to flourish upon care, was often 
cast down and overwhelmed by the countless embar- 
rassments with which he had to contend. But he was 
not despondent. " We should never despair,'' he 
wrote to Schuyler, in the summer of 1778, referring 
to the unexpected evacuation of Ticonderoga and 
Mount Independence by St. Clair, "our situation 
before has been unpromising and has changed for the 
better, so I trust it will again. If new difliculties 
arise we must only put forth new exertions, and 
proportion our eilbrts to the exigency of the limes." 
Experience has taught the English people that the 
progress of war never fulfils the popular expecta- 
tions ; that although victory may be assured at last 
to patient and untiring vigor and energy in its pro- 
secution, yet during the continuance of a long war, 
there can be no well-founded hope of a uniform and 
constant series of brilliant triumphs in the field illus- 
trating the profound wisdom of the policy of the 
cabinet ; that, on the contrary, all w^ar, even that 
which is most successful in the end, consists rather 
in checkered fortunes, of alternations of victory and 
disaster, and that its conduct is generally marked by 
what were evidently, when viewed in the light of 



16 

experience, blunders so glaring in the policy adopted 
by (lie government, or in the strategy of its generals, 
that the wonder is success was achieved at all. The 
English have thus been taught that the true charac- 
teristic of public opinion in its judgment of a war, 
should be, not so much hopefulness or impatience of 
immediate results, but rather a stern endurance — 
that King-quality of heroic constancy which rooted 
depp in a profound conviction of the justice of the 
cause, supports a lofty public spirit equally well in 
the midst of temporary disaster, and in the hour of 
assured triumph/'' 

It will be found that the denunciations of the gov- 
ernment, so common among us of late, and the com- 
plaints of the inactivity of the army, have their 
exact counterpart in the history of the progress of 
all the wars in which England has been engaged 
since the days of the great Eebellion. He who 
draws consolation from the lessons of the past, will 
not, I think, seek comfort in vain when he discovers 
that in all those wars in which the government and 
the army have been so bitterly assailed, (except that 
of the American Eevoliition,) England has at last 
been triumphant. 

Fellow Citizens, the virtue, which as a people we 
at present need above all others, \^ patience. "Ear- 
nestness is a great thing, but patience is a better." 

* Charles J. Stille. 



17 

From the outburst of our troubles we have had 
nothing more serious to contend witJi than our national 
infirmity — impatience. ''It is a quality," says Dr. 
South "sudden, eager and insatiable, which grasps at 
all and admits of no delay ; scorning to await God's 
leisure, and attend humbly and dutifully upon the 
issues of his wise and just providence." To it I 
ascribe more than to sympathy with treason, or 
slavery, more than to wilful opposition to the govern- 
ment, or desire for disunion, the unreasonable and 
unjustifiable attacks upon the administration for every 
misfortune which has attended our arms, the ungallaut 
reproach of our generals, who have not been able to 
gain successive victories, and the too common mis- 
representation of the issues involved in the war. 

We are so spoiled by the perfection to which our 
ingenuity has wrought the telegraph and the steam 
engine, that we expect the achievement of the 
greatest military movements in the shortest space of 
time. We forget that we are engaged in a war on 
a scale of magnitude never before known in the 
world. We forget that the small armies of the 
Revolution consumed eight wearisome years in their 
marches and counter-marches, over a limited terri- 
tory, ere the triumph of arms was definitely settled. 
We forget that our troops are for the most part men 
who hastened to the field wholly ignorant of military 
life, discipline and hardship, and that we have no 



18 

general who has ever before been called upon to 
command large bodies of men. Beyond all, and the 
most inexcusable of all, v/e forget that if the principles 
for which we contend are firmly established after a 
war of eight or twice eight years in its duration, they 
will be secured at no extravagant price. The cele- 
brated Dr. John Rodgers in a sermon preached in 
Kew York in 1783, declared that the Eevolution had 
in his judgment been effected in a remarkably short 
time. In less time than that in wdiich the states of 
Holland in their struggle with Spain dared so much 
as lay claim to independence. 

Our struggle, already expensive in life and treasure, 
may be tedious and exhausting. Yet I see no 
creditable w^ay out of it save through the overthrow 
of the military power of the revolted states. That is 
all the conquest or subjugation which any sane man 
proposes shall be submitted to by the South, and I 
have faith to believe that we can and will impose 
it. I blame no man for desiring peace. It is a 
blessing which like health, must be lost to be properly 
appreciated. We who have realized its fullest enjoy- 
ment for long years past can now comprehend its 
worth. But a peace bought by dishonor, by humilia- 
ting concession, or attained on a basis which cannot 
be lasting is of no possible value. He who preached 
the sermon on the mount, and who spake as never 
man spake, would spurn it. The true patriot, who 



19 

has his country^s highest good at heart, will reject 
it. Our experience is abundant that compromise is 
a useless form, an empt};^ ceremony. Mr. Crittenden 
is reported to have said in a recent speech in Ken- 
tucky, " Had my compromise been adopted by the 
South as it was agreed to by the N'orth, the rebel- 
lion and war would have been obviated." Perhaps 
they mighty but only for a time. Genuine liberty 
and peace arc not the fruits of compromise. Con- 
cession would have kept our fathers under the odious 
tyranny of King George and possibly have deprived 
us of a Eepublican government, the source of our 
prosperity, unto the present day. " The true dan- 
ger,'' says Burke, "is when liberty is nibbled away 
for expedients and by parts.'' Our whole history 
protests against any trifling with our liberties. Our 
principles must not be abandoned at any price. A 
permanent war is better than a heartless, uncertain 
and degrading peace. The foolish man built his 
house upon the sand — "And the rains descended, 
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat 
upon that house ; and it fell : and great was the 
fall of it." The wise man built his house upon a 
rock — " And the rains descended, and the floods 
came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house ; 
and it fell not : for it loas founded wpon a rocky 

Moreover the national authorities have no power 
to treat of peace with rebels, if they would. "The 



20 

war is not between two nations, each of which can 
become a high contracting party to a treaty. The 
war is between a nation and rebels against the con- 
stitution, the laws and the goyernment of the 
nation.""' This being the fact lie is tlie true ijeace- 
makei% who at this crisis, wasting no time in profitless 
debate upon the causes of the war, or the new issues 
which its progress has developed, forgetful of past 
political prejudice, and rising above party, makes 
patriotism his only platform. By every effort in his 
power he unites public sentiment in a hearty support 
of the government in its endeavors to crush the 
rebellion He cheers our brave troops to the field 
and remembers them in the fatiguing march and the 
deathful battle. lie does not object if an arm dark- 
er than his own is raised to aid in defending his 
country's flug. "He does not stickle for the letter 
of the Constitution with the affectation of the prude, 
and abandon its principles and spirit with the ef- 
frontery of a prostitute." He does not think it just 
" to shoot the simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, 
and yet not to touch a hair of the wily agitator who 
induces him to desert.'' His anathemas are for those 
who would destroy, and not for those who would 
preserve his country. He does not find everything 
to admire in the conduct of the armies of the South 
and nothing to challenge his approval in the deport- 
ment of our own gallant volunteers. Whatever 

* Chatlos Eliot Norton 



21 

of reckoning he has with the administration he 
postpones to a proper day. For the present his 
first and sole concern is the prosecution of the 
war for the life of the Republic, and to that he 
devotes his time, his purse and if need be, his sword 
and his life^ well aware that 

" Before the joy of peace must come 
The pains of purifying." 

Convinced that with the loss of his country he 
must lose everything that he holds near and dear. 

It is only by such earnest, all-absorbing, self- deny- 
ing patriotism — tempered with enduring patience — 
that the Republic can be preserved. *' If we mean 
to support the liberty and independence which it has 
cost us so much blood and treasure to establish, we 
must drive far away the demon of party spirit and 
local reproach. '' So wrote Washington and the words 
should be graven on every heart. It is not through 
a headlong radicalism or a stubborn conservatism, but 
in the exercise of a wise and liberal policy adapted 
to the exigencies of the hour, a quick comprehension 
of things as they are, and a readiness to meet them, 
that our hope rests. It is not by the rise or fall of 
one party or another that our cause is to succeed, 
but by the demolition of all parties : 

" When Greeks joined. Greeks, then was the tug of war." 

When soaring above the walls of party, we catch 



22 

the inspiration of a purer patriotism, and advance to 
meet the foe as one man, shoulder to shoulder, 
heart to heart, and soul to soul, determined to do 
or to die, then may we expect to begin to see the 
end of the war. The sentiment may be hackneyed, 
but it should be reiterated with stirring emphasis. 
It is the key note to victory. It should be the 
watchword on every lip. It is wafted to us from 
the green grave of Douglas : "I deprecate War, 
but if it must come, I am with my Country and for 
my Country under all circumstances, and in every 
contingency. Individual policy must be subservient 
to public safety.'^ It comes from the honored retire- 
ment of Cass : " It is the duty of all to zealously 
support the Government in its efforts to bring this 
unhappy civil war to a speedy and satisfactory con- 
clusion by the restoration, in its integrity, of that 
great charter of freedom bequeathed to us by "Wash- 
ington and his compatriots." 

When Admiral Blake was fighting the battles of 
his country on the ocean, under the government of 
a man whom he did not respect, he returned an 
answer to his men which, in my judgment, ought to 
be the answer given by every loyal American, with 
regard to his course in this great contest : '^ It is 
our duty," he said, " to stand by the government 
under which we live, and light for its supremacy, 
maintenance and preservation, no matter in whose 
hands, temporarily, the government may be,'' 



23 

To-clay if never before are we summoned to united 
action, Tlie trampled crops, the burning villages, 
and the ruthless steps of the invader in a sister 
state, demand that whatever our differences of opin- 
ion, we shall be ready not only to relieve our suf- 
fering neighbors, but also to defend our own soil 
which may next be visited by the armed hosts of 
rebellion, if they be not speedily overpowered. 

What has already been done is a living protest 
against any faltering or half way measures at this 
hour ill the struggle. The popular uprising which 
quick as the report follows the flash, responded to 
the cowardly assault upon Anderson's little band of 
patriots, and threw the world into an amazement 
from which it has not yet recovered, is without a 
parallel in history. Napoleon never at one time 
marshalled so m.any men as our armieS, worn and 
decimated as they are, now contain. Wellington's 
guards in their palmiest days were not braver sol- 
diers than thousands who with stout arms and fear- 
less hearts to-day bear up the tattered flag of the 
Union. 

When Virginia organized her first regiments for 
the Revolutionary straggle, a plain looking individual 
handed up to the speaker of the House of Burgesses 
a scrap of paper on which was written, "Hugh Mer- 
cer will serve his adopted country and the cause of 
liberty in any rcuih or station to which he mav be 



24 

appointed." With the noble spirit of General Mer- 
cer, at that time a veteran soldier, oor adopted citi- 
zens have co-operated with the native born in the 
defence of the land which has been the refuge and 
hope of the oppressed of the old world. The green 
(lag of Erin, the orange colors of Grermany, and other 
banners rich in historic renown^ have wound their 
folds within those of the stars and stripes upon every 
battle field, and shared the glory of every victory. 

Hours might be given to a recital of the deeds of 

brilliant daring which have distinguished our armies, 

despite their ill fortanes to the present hour. Leon- 

idas at Thcrmopolya? was not a grander spectacle 

tlian Lyon leading his dashing regiments into the 

jaws of death at Wilson's Creek, or than Baker h- 

ciuc; death a^'ainst fearful odds at Ball's Bluff, and 

falling pierced with many wounds, any one of which 

would have taken his valuable life. What is there 

in history fnier than Ileintzelman's grim endurance, 

Kearney's contempt of danger,' or Hancock's superb 

charge at Williamsburgh. Was ever instance of the 

power of personal presence and • death-defying 

•bravery on the part of a leader more signal than 

that of Rosecrans at Murfreesboro, when throwing 

himself into the terrible breach, amidst an avalanche 

of shot and shell, he routed the enemy and won the 

day. What baronial hall preserves a banner more 

o-lorious than that recently returned by the 44th Reg- 



25 

iment of New York Volunteers, torn by an 
hundred bullets and stained with the blood of twelve 
standard bearers killed and eighteen wounded while 
carrjiug it. Nor does the romance of war chronicle 
exploits more dazzling and wonderful than those of 
Stoneman and G-rierson and their brave men of the 
saddle and the sabre. 

The services of the navy, though less conspicuous 
than those of the army, have in numerous instances 
been worthy of the warmest admiration. The pas- 
sage up the Mississippi to New Orleans, through 
miles of blazing batteries and infernal machines, will 
be remembered as an achievement winning lasting 
honor for all who participated in it. The bombard- 
ment of Forts Henry and Donaldson — where in con- 
junction with the indomitable Grant the dauntless 
Foote, ''moved upon the enemy's works" with resist- 
less determination — added enviable distinction to the 
name of the Christian sailor, who has fought his 
last battle, and of whom it may truly be said : 

" From the top of fame's ladder, he stepped to the sky." 

What a hero was he ! Search history and you shall 
not find a greater. Through a life accustomed to the 
rigid discipline of the navy, familiar with the roar 
of the conflict, as brave as a lion, yet as gentle and 
as pure as a child, and without a personal enemy in 
the world. 



26 

These brave deeds of our army and navy, are such 
as any age or people might rejoice in. We have a 
right to dwell upon them, and to rebuke those, at 
home or abroad, who would disparage them. It is 
meet that from time to time as their survivors return 
to us burned by Southern suns, and decorated with 
reputable scars, we should welcome them as the 
Romans received their valiant defenders : 

" With chaplets and with offerings, 
With music and with song." 

Not more for themselves than for us have they, 
through long months, patiently borne the vicissitudes 
of the bivouac and the battle. When honorabl}^ dis- 
charged from their honorable service, they put off 
the garb of the soldier or sailor, and resume their 
wonted vocations, let us see to it that any loss which 
may have accrued by their absence is speedily made 
up to them, and that though they quietly renew the 
unostentatious duties of the citizen, their sacrifices 
for their country are remembered and appreciated. 
If they have served in the ranks their patriotism 
should be the more thought of. Our victories are 
usually won by the private soldier. 

Kor let those be forgotten whose faces are no 
more to be seen on earth, who have yielded their 
lives, a testimony to their fidelity to their country 
and the principles upon which its existence must 
repose, A mighty army of patriots and martyrs : 



27 



For us they poured their blood like wine, 
From life's ripe gathered clusters, 

And far thro' History's night shall shine 
Their deeds with starry lustres." 



Weeping mother, the fair haired boy whose pure 
life was alike your comfort and your hope, whose 
fervent love of country was but one of the inspira- 
tions of your tender teachings, and whose early death 
from home has filled your heart with irrepressible 
grief, was not taken from you for nought. His body 
sleeps in yonder church-yard, but his spirit and ex- 
ample live, the pride of the loyal and the true — a 
precious legacy to his suffering country. Disconso- 
late sister, the manly cheek which went forth to 
battle moistened by your affectionate kisses, and 
which was brought back to you pale and torn in 
death, was not lacerated in an idle contest. The 
strong arm upon which you were wont to depend, 
and the loss of which you so keenly deplore, was 
not paralyzed until it had won for your brother a 
name and fame inseparable from the great cause in 
which he was a willing volunteer. Little children, 
he whom you called father, whose bright dress you 
were proud to touch, and with whose shattered sword 
you now play, in blissful innocence of the fate of the 
brave arm that bore it, did not fall until he had 
left you an heritage of honor which through after 
years shall make you known and respected of men. 

Bleeding country, 3'our chivalrous sons who by 



28 

tlionsands have fallen with their armor on, have not 
gone hence a vain sacrifice. The insinuation, come 
from whence it may^ is cruel and cowardlj^ The 
fair fields of jonr fair states, and the waves of jour 
broad rivers, have not been crimsoned with human 
gore to no purpose. Every life that has gone out, 
every drop of blood that has been shed in support 
of your laws and liberties will bring an ample return. 
The offering has been for truth, for justice, for free- 
dom, for humanity, for all generations, through all 
time. — " Having once succeeded in suppressing the 
fearful evil which is devouring them,'' says a capable 
foreign observer,* "the United States will not feel 
that their present sacrifices are disproportioned to the 
progress accomplished.'' 

Hp4)pi]y whatever the attitude of demagogues and 
partizans, or the infatuation of those who would ap- 
Darently preserve a peculiar institution even at the 
expense of the Union, the spirit of the people has 
been and is true to the country and to the govern- 
ment. Some of those who opposed the election of 
the present chief magistrate of this state have ex- 
pressed surprise at the promptness with which he 
responded to the recent call of the President for 
militia to defend the soil of Pennsylvania. As a law 
abiding and sagacious man he could not do less. 
He knew that the people, even those who elevated 
him to otrice w^ould not approve of any other course. 

* Count cle Gasparin. 



29 

To have hesitated would have been to invite anarchy 
and confusion here, nay more, to have countenanced 
the pernicious doctrine of state rights now so gener- 
ally execrated at the North. 

For one I apprehend little danger of the conclusion 
of peace upon discreditable terms through any agency. 
Were Mr. Yallandigham to-day Governor of Ohio he 
could not expedite the termination of the war, save 
by contributing to its more vigorous prosecution. 
The terms upon which he could negotiate a cessation 
of hostilities (had he the power,) otherwise tlian 
through victory over the rebel arms, would be such 
as no considerable number even of his su [^porters 
could or would submit to. The exhibitions of con- 
tempt for everythiug .Northern which the South has 
made during the war, demonstrate most clearly that 
henceforth there can be no union of the two sections 
except through the supremacy of the North. This 
however, does not necessarily involve any infringe- 
ment of Southern rights, and I hazard nothing in say- 
ing that were the rebels, causeless and monstrous as 
has been their crime, to lay down their arms to-day, 
there would be on the part of the North^ such a dis- 
play of magnanimity as the world has never seen. It 
is a notable fact that there is even at this time more 
of pity than of anger in the hearts of our people. — 
Throwing away their swords, and returning to their 
wonted allegiance to the Constitution and the flag, the 



30 

recreancy of the mistaken authors and abettors of 
secession would gladly be forgotten, and every reason- 
able and proper guarantee of the rights of the South 
be given as heretofore with cheerful promptness. 

But reason is too far dethroned in the rebellious 
states to lead us to look for any such voluntary aban- 
donment of the strife on their part, and I am 
persuaded that whatever administration may succeed 
the present one in the North, its method of prose- 
cuting the war, if unhappily it be not sooner con- 
cluded, will vary from that now followed, only in its 
better system and effectiveness, founded upon the 
experience of the past, and in its increased severity, 
the result of a conviction that "the boldest measures 
are the safest ;" a conviction fast gaining place in the 
popular heart. 

Fellow Citizens — I repeat it, the question of peace 
can now only be settled on the tented field. The war 
must go on^ not to the bitter end, but to the sweet 
conclusion, bringing the supremacj^ of law and liberty 
and honor. Not alone for ourselves and our success- 
ors must it be fought out, but for those who are to 
come after the maddened men who so recklessly trifle 
with the destinies of the South. The children, and 
the children's children, will not forgive us if we fail 
to check the wild ambition of the mistaking fathers. 

If in view of the precious blood alread}^ given, and 



31 



that which must yet be poured out in the clash of 
arms, our hearts are shadowed with sorrow, may it 
be a sorrow which shall teach us 



" IIow sublime a thing it is 
To snffor and be strong." 



A sorrow which like the darkest hour of the night 
precedes the morning, "when the sun riseth, even a 
morning without clouds.'' A sorrow which like the 
lowering skies, the flashing lightning, and the rumbling 
thunder, gives birth to the rainbow. A sorrow which 
like the heat of the furnace refmes the precious ore. 
A sorrow consoled by the reflection that " this crisis 
despite the sufferiog that it includes will be the honor 
and consolation of our times," and that from the 
dreadful contentions we are yet to witness, there 
shall come forth a pure and permanent peace, an age 
wherein the sword shall literally be beaten into the 
ploughshare, and the spear into the pruning hook. 

While it is true that so terrible a civil war was 
never wa":ed before, so is it true that such s-reat 
necessity never before existed as upon our part. 
Never before were such momentous issues committed 
to the arbitrament of the sword. The w^ars of his- 
tory, not excepting our own revolution, all assume an 
insignificance in the face of this gigantic struggle for 
constitutional liberty and self-government. Nothing 
must retard us in such a contest. 



32 

At a gloomy hour ia the Revolution Washington 
exclaimed "We must not despair; the game is yet 
in our own hands ; to play it well is all we have to 
do. And I trust, the experience of error will ena- 
ble us to act better in future. A cloud may yet 
pass over us ; individuals may be ruined, and the 
country at large, or particular states, undergo .tem- 
porary distress ; but certain I am, that it is in our 
power to bring the war to a happy conclusion." 

This is the spirit and the hope, fellow citizens, in 
which we must go forward. Fortunately our re- 
sources are unparalleled in the annals of nations. 
The national debt, large and accumulating, is not 
alarming. The loans negotiated by the Secretary of 
the Treasury since the war began, have for the most 
part been at rates even below those usual in a time 
of peace, and the public securities have not depreci- 
ated through all the disasters to our arms. 

No better testimony could be given to the popular 
confidence in the stability of the government and its 
ability to carry on the war. It is natural that 
England, ever obstinately ignorant of our capacities 
and jealous of our success, should proclaim us on the 
verge of bankruptcy. It is inexcusable that we 
should for a moment be led into the acknowledg- 
ment. A few figures, lately obtained from the 
Department of Agriculture, tell a story which the 
world would do well to consider: Our total Agricul- 



tiaral exports (exclusive of cotton) in 1860 — when 
we were yet at peace, were $90,849,556, of which 
Southern ports exported $19,738,365. In 1861 with 
half a million of men in arms, and no Southern 
exports, they amounted to $137,026,505, and in 
1862, with a million of men in the field, (one-half of 
them from the rural districts) and no Southern ex- 
ports, they reached the sura of $155,142,075. The 
amount of wheat and flour alone exported in the 
year ending September 1, 1862, exceeded that of the 
previous year by over seven millions of bushels. 
Estimating the force of our army (and its employees) 
in the field at one million of men as I have done 
(and I deem it a reasonable estimate) and the 
rations per diem to each man at twenty-two ounces 
of flour, it requires for its supply for a year 
12,800,000 bushels of wheat. Was there ever a 
countr}^ in the world one-half of which could feed 
such an army, largely made up from its agricultural 
population, and yet so wonderfully increase its ex- 
ports of breadstuffs ? 

Such a country can bear any amount of taxation, 
and it is childish to complain of that now imposed. 
When we are obliged to deny ourselves the luxur- 
ies of life : to put half our income at the disposal 
of government as has been done by the English in 
time of war ; or even to pay the excessive taxes 
which are common in Grreat Britain, in time of 



34 

peacCj we may have cause to murmur. Compared 
with the usual mternal revenue tax of England, our's, 
which is simply temporary and for war purposes, is 
singularly light and inoppressive. The income tax is 
an old story there, and much higher than here rated. 
A trifling transaction with your tailor or boot maker 
requires the outlay of a stamp, and the great agri- 
cultural interests, which under our law, imperfect as 
it is, are all but exempted, are there round 1}^ burth- 
ened. Had we lived under the costly governments 
of the old world we would not think of complaining 
01 the taxes we have to pay, even in view of their 
increase for war purposes. It is because of our re- 
markable exemptioD hitherto that we feel them at 
all. They are not, nor can the}'^ for years to come, 
be sufhcient to excuse us from promptly and gene- 
rously upholding our government whether in peace 
or in war, 'Nor can I after a careful survey of our 
condition as a nation, discover any sufficient reason 
for discouragement, much less for despair, in the work 
to which we have now given our hands. 

I believe it will be gradually but surely accom- 
plished, and that without foreign interference on 
either side, and in utter indifference to the dictates 
of that hypocritical power with which we measured 
swords so successfully in former days, and from 
¥/hose tyranny we to-day celebrate our deliverance. 
Thai selfish people whom Napoleon described as a 



35 

nation of shop-keepers, and whose course throughout 
our difficulties has amply justified the epithet. That 
conclave of braggarts and money makers, as igno- 
rant of principle as of good manners. That aggrega- 
tion of cockneys and snobs, who have ever been 
prone to interfere in matters which do not concern 
them, and who with delightful consistency have suf- 
fered us to feed the starving thousands of Lancashire 
whilst they have fitted out Alabamas and Floridas 
to prey upon our commerce, and to help in under- 
mining the G-reat Republic whose manifold prosperity 
they dread. It is for traitors to add to their degra- 
dation by courting the sympathy of such a perfidious 
power. We want, and will have none of it. In oar 
own time, and according to our own plans, we will 
prove to the world that we are able to assert our 
rights against all assailants either foreign or domestic. 

As in years past the ploughman turning the "stub- 
born glebe" has ever and anon brought to the sur- 
face some relic of the revolutionary straggle, at the 
sight of which he has been led to contemplate with 
gratitude the resolute heroism with which the patriot 
fathers established the independence of the Republic, 
so hereafter, when the plough, and not the madden- 
ing wheel of artillery, shall furrow the fields now 
dewy with human blood, the American who discovers 
some rusty memorial of the present contest will utter 
thanksgiving that as the fathers secured, so the 
sons maintained for him, and his remotest posterity, 



36 

the inestimable blessings of liberty and good govern- 
ment. Impartial and never dying history will 
proudly devote its best pages to a record of our 
faithful and successful defence of the noble inheri- 
tance bequeathed us by a valiant and honored ances- 
try, and far down the future of time, it shall be told 
in story and in song that when the land of Wash- 
ington and Jackson was assailed and its freedom and 
unity threatened by ingrates and traitors, its loyal 
and trusty citizens hesitated at no sacrifice to make 
liberty "durable and glorious," and even at the 
cannon's mouth rebuked and confounded those who 
would destroy the Republic. 

But the chief glory shall then, as now, be given 
to Him who was the God of our fathers, whom they 
worshipped in spirit and in truth ; to whom they 
appealed in their hours of darkness and distress, 
and whose word was a lamp to their feet and a 
light to their path. He who has been our guide in 
all our troubles. In Him is our strength more than 
in all human intelligence or power, and His mercy 
and goodness are and must ever be our protection. 
Upon Him let all the people rely in confidence and 
in hope, 

" For who that leans on His right arm 
Was ever yet forsalcen ? 
What righteous cause can nuWev harm 
If He its part has taken ? 
Though wild and loud, 
And dark the cloud, 
Behind its folds 
His hand upholds 
The calm sky of to-morrow I" 



